Stockton Flavor Fest

Entered by: Visit StocktonLike many communities across the globe, years of devastation due to the COVID-19 Pandemic resulted in anything but beauty and celebration in Stockton, California. Hundreds of shuttered windows and loss of hope filled the always-resilient community. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Stockton has faced negative press, scandals, and disservice. Once named the Most Miserable City in America (Forbes, 2011 & 2012), Stockton has struggled to stand-out against its neighbours in the West (San Francisco Bay Area) and California’s State Capital (Sacramento) as a major tourist attractor due to its lack of destination-driving attractions and activities.A community of 330,000 may stand out in any other state in the nation, but in California, competition for visitation, resources, and publicity is tireless. With a checkered past and hopes for economic recovery, city leadership worked tirelessly to push through a plan to bring civic pride back into the community. Thanks to ARPA funding and an Economic Development Strategic Action Plan with an emphasis on placemaking and providing small business incubation, Stockton Flavor Fest was born.Stockton is also known as the Most Diverse City in America (U.S. News, 2020), and that sentiment was the driving-force for the placemaking initiative. The City of Stockton Economic Development Department spearheaded the initiative of their Strategic Action Plan by calling together various leaders in the community (downtown development agencies, event space leaders, various city departments, Visit Stockton, etc.) and it was decided that recovery needed to start downtown, and what better place than Weber Point Events Center, the signature outdoor event space.Weber Point Events Center was once home to the Stockton Asparagus Festival, the City’s signature event celebrating the harvest of the region, but unfortunately was defunct in 2014. There has not been an annual destination driving event of its calibre in the city since. The hope was that by establishing a new annual event, reflecting the values of the community in a familiar, public space, the team could bring that same placemaking energy back for the city.The goal for the event was to highlight the cultures, cuisine, and community that make Stockton the most diverse city in the nation, and the team could not accomplish that alone. Visit Stockton was designated as the lead organisation for the new event, since they were the most visible and qualified in the space of events and community engagement. They spent countless hours meeting with other likeminded community organisations to gather input and establish their trust in creating an event that was reflective of Stockton’s collective identity and goals.Celebrating all the cultures in a community was ambitious for a two-day, first-year event, but the team were committed to doing so.The first course of action was hiring a local events organisation to solicit and on-board the food and artisan vendors. The team wanted a curated and intentional event, highlighting the small businesses and entrepreneurs that make up the diverse community. The goal was to bring awareness and appreciation to the local businesses of Stockton, and requiring an application and approval process for vendors ensured the team gave priority to their community.The team also worked with AAA on a Diversity Scholarship programme that awarded 5 vendor booths to local vendors (LGBT+, BiPOC) that faced financial need. Priority was given to all musical acts (main stage and secondary stage), including cultural performances (Brazilian Samba, Ballet Folklorico, Chinese Dragon Dancers, etc) to the local community. With the help of a California Arts Council grant, the team gave away nearly $20,000 to local artists to administer free art workshops, live art, and sculptures at the event.On the Sunday morning, they hosted Drag Brunch, working with the San Joaquin Pride Center and local drag queens to create a fun, colourful event to further celebrate the cultures, arts, and diversity in the community. The team believe that food is a beautiful way to explore another culture, and they wanted to share that through educational kitchen demonstration sessions. They worked with non-profits like the Stockton Community Kitchen to curate sessions highlighting the preparation of cuisines such as Puerto Rican, Soul Food, and vegan.None of this could have happened without the work of over 600 volunteers, representing over 30 non-profit organizations in the community. All proceeds from Stockton Flavor Festival went back to the volunteer organizations that made this event possible. The hope was to reflect the cultures of the audience through the vendors, entertainment, and programming of this event, and it took a village to implement that value.The sentiment during and post-Stockton Flavor Fest was overwhelmingly positive. For an event that is only two years old, the team are extremely proud of the responses they have received from city officials, vendors, attendees, and partners. Some of the highlights included the feeling of safety that attendees felt, how clean the festival grounds were, how respectful the crowd was, how many options of family-friendly things to do were provided, how beautiful the park looked, and how many diverse offerings were available.In 2022, the team won the Best New Festival Award from the International Festival and Events Association, and this honour was celebrated across the city, and made the solicitation for vendors, artists, and performers much more competitive in the second year.Since the event, the community has begun conversations about new placemaking initiatives, like redevelopment projects on underutilised waterfront property and monthly pop-up events at Weber Point Events Center to continue the reactivation of this wonderful community asset.Overall, Stockton pulled together, from city leadership to grassroots arts organisations, to create a lasting event that the community can be proud of for years to come.

Stockton Flavor Fest

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